A man was killed and two others were wounded in a shooting Monday night in Roseland on the Far South Side.

They were standing outside about 8:50 p.m. in the 400 block of East 111th Street when someone inside a black car opened fire, Chicago police said.

A 31-year-old man was shot in the back and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead, police said. He hasn’t been identified.

Another man, 54, was struck in the wrist and self-transported to Roseland Hospital in good condition, police said. A third man, 30, was shot in the foot and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

No arrests were made.

Read More

”We not trippin’ off school,” LaMelo Ball, the NBA Rookie of the Year last season, told his GQ interviewer. ”We don’t need school. And school not even teachin’ you [bleep] — what the [bleep] is school?”

Yep. That got some attention.

I think a lot of us were just waiting for some big-time athlete to blurt out such an opinion, rather than giving the usual lip service to the value of education, self-reflection, book knowledge, refined discourse, college diplomas, forward thinking, etc.

Ball plays for the Hornets and was the third pick in the 2020 draft. He’s also the brother of new Bulls guard Lonzo Ball and LiAngelo Ball, who is a free agent.

This trio is really something, being the offspring of 6-6 former college football and basketball player LaVar Ball and 6-0 former college basketball player Tina Slatinsky Ball. And, of course, there’s that perfect last name.

You could say the Balls were bred to play hoops, with their aggressive and outspoken dad guiding them through their youth with the goal of being global basketball stars seemingly the only thing on his mind. He even created his own junior pro league for his sons to play in and started an apparel company, Big Baller Brand, to market clothes they endorsed.

And, of course, the Balls have that California necessity, a reality show, ”Ball in the Family.”

LaVar projects shades of notorious sports and entertainment dads such as Marv Marinovich, Stefano Capriati, Peter Graf, Earl Woods, Joe (Jackson Five) Jackson, Kris Kardashian and Jamie Spears.

There long have been parents who lived through their gifted children, with little concern about their offspring’s education, mental health or socialization skills, caring mainly about the pursuit of fame and riches.

So that parental manipulation must be considered whenever the affected child says or does stuff that seems a little loony. Remember that when thinking about LaMelo Ball.

Consider that his college career consists of nothing. At 16, he dropped out of high school, turned pro and played in Lithuania and Australia, neither of which he liked. About Australia, he said to GQ: ”Big-ass spiders. I’m talking this big. Hellll naw!”

The kid, just 19 when he did the interview, is one of the youngest NBA stars ever, being close in certain skills to the rarefied genius of teen stars Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. Of course, he was primed for such, having scored 92 points in a high school game when he was only 15.

But maturity?

What he said about school is true on one level: If you’re a freakishly gifted athlete, you don’t need anything but your game to earn a living. On another level, however, it’s so wrong because our world depends on education, thoughtfulness and knowledge all being directed toward the global problems we live with and, hopefully, someday can solve.

LaMelo quickly sensed a possible public-relations problem with his GQ words and wrote on Instagram: ”Let me rephrase . . . school not for EVERYBODY.”

But it’s for a lot.

I’ve always thought the best line preceding LaMelo’s dissing of higher education came from former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones, who back in 2012 tweeted: ”Why should we have to go to class if we come here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.”

That got him a lot of attention, and he later regretted it. Two and a half years later, he tweeted: ”can’t believe I tweeted something as stupid as this but hey, we live and we learn, NOTHING is more important then education.”

Yes, the ”then” misspelling got him a lot of sarcastic responses. But Jones had the last laugh: He graduated from Ohio State.

Jones and LaMelo seem to be high-spirited, playful, young men — Jones still has 1.5 million Twitter followers and often tweets about college football — and we must cut developing young men some slack. Who doesn’t grow up? (Well, at least a bit.)

Our country was built on the twin ideals of democracy and capitalism. Both those things allow for profiting off your skills, and profiting has come to college sports, for sure.

You could ask budding teenage Alabama football star Kool-Aid McKinstry about that. He just signed a big promotional contract with — yup — Kool-Aid.

So, LaMelo, play ball. College ain’t for everyone. Neither is proper grammar.

But they’re certainly not (bleep).

Read More

Read More

Kanye West built a replica of his boyhood home for his show last week at Soldier Field because the city denied him permission to move the real thing.

The city’s Buildings Department explained it like this: “Moving a home in Chicago is a very technical process that requires structural engineer reports and multiple city permits. The request to move the house at 7815 S. South Shore Dr. was denied last week because no permit application had been received to excavate and move the vacant property which is also in Demolition Court.”

So Kanye fabricated the South Shore home, with the addition of a beaming cross on top, for the Chicago stop on his “listening tour,” in which he played his new album.

A full-scale model of Kanye West’s childhood home was constructed inside Soldier Field last week. But West’s original plan was even more ambitious — moving the actual home into the stadium from South Shore.ABC7 Chicago

The album is named “Donda,” after his mother.

The home, plopped in the middle of the field, served as a dramatic centerpiece as dancers dressed in SWAT gear and a lineup of trucks continuously circled its perimeter at one point. To close out the show, West lit himself on fire (he was safely extinguished) and reenacted his wedding vows with a little help from Kim Kardashian, despite their pending divorce.

According to a WGN report from April of last year, West purchased the home where he lived from the time he was a toddler until he was 20 for about $225,000 with plans to renovate. It wasn’t immediately clear how the home, which has been empty and boarded up for several years, ended up in demolition court.

Read More

A 17-year-old boy was hurt in a shooting Monday night in Chatham on the South Side.

The teen was traveling in a rideshare bicycle about 6:50 p.m. in the 7900 block of South Vernon Avenue when someone in a vehicle fired shots, Chicago police said.

He was struck in the arm and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition, police said.

Area Two detectives are investigating.

Read More

Read More

The union that represents Chicago firefighters and paramedics has voiced its opposition to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s vaccine mandate.

“I’m 100 percent opposed to the mandate; it should be a personal decision,” Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 President Jim Tracy told the Sun-Times on Monday.

Last week Lightfoot announced that all city workers must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 15.

“It’s the carrot and the stick, and it drives me crazy when you always use the stick,” said Tracy.

For Tracy and good amount of his membership, something like firefighting gear is a justified requirement, but requiring a vaccine in their opinion is different.

“I’m not going to go into a fire with a T-shirt and pants, but when you stick something in someone’s arm it’s a different story,” he said.

“It should be a personal choice, like a flu shot,” he said, noting that many members who’ve been vaccinated feel the same way.

Tracy said he encourages his approximately 4,600 members to get inoculated, and estimates about 60% have done so.

There are members who are in the anti-vaccination camp. Tracy didn’t know how many but said “they are screaming their heads off.”

Three members of the union have died from COVID-19.

Tracy said he sent a letter to Lightfoot expressing his displeasure but hasn’t formally heard back.

Lightfoot’s office didn’t return a request for comment.

Union members have been in ongoing discussions with members of Lightfoot’s team about the issue. Officials from the Chicago Federation of Labor, an umbrella organization that represents hundreds of unions — including Firefighters Union Local 2 — have also been at the table.

The CFL has an ownership stake in Sun-Times Media.

Tracy said he favors weekly testing instead of a vaccine mandate.

“We’re looking out for our members and all the citizens of Chicago,” he said.

The union representing Chicago police officers also opposes a vaccine mandate.

Read More

Tom Hanks met singer Ruth Marx when he was having dinner with her and her musician son Richard Marx. He asked her to tell him about herself.

She began singing a TV commercial jingle that became an earworm for generations of consumers: “Ask any mermaid you happen to see, what’s the best tuna?” she sang.

Hanks jumped up and completed the line: “Chicken of the Sea!”

“He starts singing along with her, and he says, ‘Oh, my goodness, Ruth, you’re a goddess,’ ” her son said.

Ruth Marx’s singing career captivated actor Tom Hanks (right).Provided

Mrs. Marx’s honeyed voice was heard on many of the TV commercial jingles her husband Dick Marx composed for products that also included Doublemint gum, Kellogg’s Raisin Bran, Peter Pan peanut butter, Ken-L Ration dog food and Virginia Slims cigarettes.

Richard Marx said she died Aug. 24 of lung cancer at his California home. She was 85.

Mrs. Marx went on the road with him and sang on his recordings, including the single “Streets of Pain.”

The backup singers were “just screaming the chorus,” said Marx, who’d proudly tell people, “That’s my mom.”

“She was always to fun to be around,” he said. And “she was a really, really wonderful singer.”

Growing up in a family of seven kids in East Liverpool, Ohio, “She knew her ticket out was her voice,” her son said.

Her father Duane was a steelworker. Her mother Lois worked in a pottery factory. At one point in 1948 — during post-World War II housing shortages — the Guildoos lived in a tent at a campsite, cooking on a kerosene stove and carrying water from a spring while fighting off the mosquitoes, her hometown paper once wrote.

At East Liverpool High, she performed in talent shows and plays. She started touring with big bands.

“She made her way to Chicago because she heard about this vocal coach,” her son said.

The coach was Richard Marx, whose Dick Marx Trio played at places like Mister Kelly’s and the Palmer House during the city’s nightclub heyday.

In Chicago, she went through some lean years and odd jobs. She stayed at a YMCA and worked in a physician’s office where “the doctor would harass her and chase her around,” her son said, often getting by on chicken noodle soup and crackers.

“And there were times,” he said, “she didn’t have money for anything but the crackers.”

She started studying with Dick Marx. She’d say he “taught me more about phrasing and singing with emotion than anyone.’ ”

After his first marriage ended, they were married in 1961. He formed a commercial music company, writing jingles including “Double your pleasure, double your fun” for Doublemint, “You’ve Come a Long, Way, Baby” for Virginia Slims, “My dog’s bigger than your dog” for Ken-L Ration, “Two scoops of raisins in a package of Kellogg’s Raisin Bran” and “If you believe in Peanut Butter, you gotta believe in Peter Pan.” He also wrote “Here Come the Hawks” for the Blackhawks and the theme for Siskel and Ebert’s “At the Movies.”

Mrs. Marx sang on many of his spots. She also sang on a 1970s commercial for Quasar TV.

She was a versatile singer who could convey the mood of a jingle, said singer Don Shelton, who worked with her on many commercials.

After raising their son in Lake Bluff, the Marxes moved to California as his musical career took off. She ran her son’s fan club. Her husband worked on music for the Hanks movie “A League of Their Own,” among other projects.

“She became a full-time grandma,” their son said. “She was on the floor playing with my three boys no matter what they wanted to do. She would play Army men with them. She would play Star Wars.”

Later, Mrs. Marx and her husband had a home in Hawthorn Woods. He died in 1997.

She enjoyed the singing of Doris Day, Julie London, Jo Stafford and Sarah Vaughan. She and her husband loved the song “Our Love is Here to Stay.”

Mrs. Marx liked shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue and wearing Jungle Gardenia perfume.

“She was really poor, and, when she started making money,” her son said, “she spoiled herself.”

He said she “was an incredibly generous gift-giver, everything from beautiful gifts to paying off somebody’s house.

“I thanked her many times for being this incredible mother. I said, ‘You were my best friend but also my confidante.’

“Every day, she said, ‘Who’s had a better life than me?’ “

He, his three sons and his wife Daisy Fuentes Marx plan to celebrate her life by watching family videos and toasting Mrs. Marx with her favorite Prosecco.

In her final days, he said he played his mother a song he wrote in 1998, titled “Thanks to You.” It includes the line: “I am who I am, Mama, thanks to you.”

Read More

Read More

Read More